BE PICKY WHEN HOUSE SHOPPING Typically we like to buy quality when we shop which included shopping for our home. This is why we scoured every available neighbourhood around our city for the best deal. The only thing we don’t like is paying full-price which meant we had our work cut out for us. Thankfully, it worked out in our favour. When buying a house you want to make sure that if you are buying a $400,000 house that the neighbourhood matches the price tag or you might struggle to sell as fast as you’d like down the road. This is why we hear over and over not to over-renovate but then again a smaller house in a bigger neighbourhood might have more luck finding a buyer than a house that costs far more than smaller surrounding homes. Today I have an email from a guy who is a first-time home-buyer with his wife and wants to know if they should spend the money and get the biggest house they can or a smaller house but in a more expensive area. Note: If you have a question for me please send me a detailed email similar to below so […]

PLAYING WITH SPARE CASH Not many people can say they have extra discretionary income kicking about every month where they have to drum up ideas about how to spend it. For those of you that do you can still manage that money with a budget if you want to stay on track with your financial goals. When Mrs. CBB and I paid off our mortgage in April 2014 it was a grand time for us. We managed to break down our mortgage into pieces and pay it off far sooner that we had ever dreamed of. The reason that happened was due to perseverance and a drive to be successful at whatever we did. I guess in a way we were pushing ourselves to earn more money but we knew in the back of our minds that it was all stepping-stones for our dream career roll. Now that our mortgage is paid we have lots of discretionary income which we just recently worked into our budget. Lots of people would be more than tempted to start spending money especially if they’ve hit it big time and the money is rolling in. What is Discretionary income vs. Disposable Income? […]

A MORTGAGE IS A HEAVY DEBT Kissing our mortgage payments goodbye one year ago this month was one of the greatest accomplishments we’ve achieved financially as husband and wife. Honestly it was my wife that reminded me that it has been a year since our final mortgage payments were processed. Time certainly does fly by but I’m certain since having our son time is just a big blur to the both of us. Mortgage Payments are reality Having no mortgage payments have not gone unnoticed though as our budget has shrunk and our net worth has jumped up to just under $700,000. It would be nice to be worth a cool million before I turn 40 although that may be super optimistic of me. When we conquer one hurdle we set goals to conquer another. Having mortgage payments will add bulk to any budget but it’s not the end of the world if you have one. The reality is that most people who have a mortgage pay for it until the end of their term unless they pay extra to shave a few years off here and there. That is great if you can do this as […]

EXPENSES BEHIND THE WALLS It’s true that our dreams can get crushed when we don’t have the cash to do what we thought we would especially when you buy a fixer-upper house. Of all the people I’ve ever met they said they didn’t feel that renting was helping them to build a financial future for their retirement years. Although this is a wide-open topic that will bring in all sorts of controversy it’s certainly a personal decision that we must make on our own. Acquaintances of ours in their early thirties are looking to buy an older home that is their dream home but the catch is they want a fixer-upper. They do plan to have kids as well in the near future. He asked me my thoughts about older fixer-upper homes since many homes in the UK are very old. I was honest with him but ultimately it was my opinion and they need to make their own. I don’t want to be responsible for one of the biggest purchases of their lives. They are currently renting and have never owned a home before so owning a home is like the golden ticket for them or anyone really. […]

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